The Power of Solitude: My Life in the German Resistance

“Dearly beloved Child of my Heart, we are probably standing at the end of our beautiful and rich life together. Because tomorrow the People’s Court intends to sit in judgment on me and others. I hear that we have been expelled from the army. They can take the uniform from us, but not the spirit in which we acted.”—Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, in a letter to his wife.

Marion Yorck von Wartenburg was involved in the Nazi resistance group known as the Kreisau Circle, whose cofounder was her husband, Peter. The Kreisau Circle participated in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. Peter’s cousin Claus Stauffen-berg and other members of the military resistance carried out the attempt. When they failed, hundreds of people were arrested, tried, and executed, including Peter. Marion and other members of the conspirators’ families were also arrested and spent months jailed under miserable conditions. In this memoir Marion recreates the terrifying reality of her life as the wife of a resistance fighter and at the same time conveys the depth of the bond that existed between her and her husband.

Julie M. Winter is co-director of the Foreign Language Institute in Helena, Montana, and the author of Luther Bible Research in the Context of Volkish Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Peter Hoffmann is William Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University in Montreal. His works include Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905–1944.